1252 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. 
flattened, dingy red: mass of spores black with purple tinge; 
spores dingy lilac, smooth. 
The above descriptions are accurate for my specimens. 
This species is indeed well marked. In the one large collec¬ 
tion which I have, there are both stipitate and sessile forms, and 
some confluent forms. The spores are about 8/a in diameter. 
They are on dead oak leaves, and were collected on a lawn in 
Madison, July 20, 1904. 
Brefeldia maxima (Fries.) Rost. 
1825. Reticulari maxima Fries, Syst. Orb. Veg., I., p. 147. 
1875. Brefeldia maxima (Fries) Rost., Versuch.,, p. 8. 
Saccardo: “ 2Ethalia nude, surface warted, purplish-black, 
resting upon a well developed silvery-shining hypothalius; 3-6 
cm. long and wide, 5-10 mm. thick; spores purplish to brownish 
dusky black, globose, spinulose, 11-12/a in diameter. ” 
Maebride calls the aethalia papillate above. He says the spor¬ 
angia in favorable cases are distinct, indicated above by the pap¬ 
illae; columella obscure, black; capillitium abundant, the threads 
united by multifid ends to surround as with a net the peculiar 
vesicles. He gives the diameter of the spores as 12-15/a and calls 
them distinctly papillose. He states that in well-matured aetha- 
lia the sporangia stand out perfectly distinct, particularly above 
and around the margins. In the center of the fructification, 
next the hvpothallus, the sporangia are very imperfectly differ¬ 
entiated.Each filament bears at its middle point a pecu¬ 
liar plexus which embraces several large cysts or vesicles. 
Lister speaks of the spongy basal tissue continuing among the 
sporangia as folds forming distinct rigid columellae. 
Massee speaks of the surface as being rough with irregular 
wart-like nodules. He gives the diameter of the spores a 9 
13-17/a. He adds: “Forming large pulvinate patches of irregu¬ 
lar form varying from 1-9 inches across.” 
This species is easily determined by the papillate character of 
the surface and the peculiar character of the capillitium, which 
is well described by Maebride. I find the spores to be 10-12/a 
in diameter. We have but one specimen, which was found in 
Madison in October 1882, growing upon what seems to be a mass 
of half-decayed leaves. 
